Furniture rest



Marc 25, 1958 J, J, USTIQA. 2,827,655

FURNITURE REST Filed March 11, 1954 INVENTOR JOSEPH J. USTICA ATTORNEY FURNITURE REST Joseph J. Ustica, Lancaster, Pa., assignor to Armstrong Jerk Company, Lancaster, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 11, 1954, Serial No. 415,487

2 Claims. ((31. 16-42) This invention relates to furniture rests and is concerned more particularly with so-called furniture glides which are normally secured to furniture such as chairs to distribute the load and avoid indentations of resilient floor coverings such as asphalt tile or the like. Such glides are disclosed in the patent to Swarr, No. 2,262,064.

The glides are commonly made of molded phenolic resin and have a floor-engaging surface which is generally smooth and essentially flat so that the furniture such as a chair may slide over the floor, as when a person seated at a desk wishes to arise. It is most annoying when the glides stick. The problem is present with most resilient floor surfacing materials such as linoleum, as halt tile, rubber tile, and the like and is aggravated where improper maintenance has resulted in an excessive accumulation of dirt-loaded wax on the floor.

The use of small glides to minimize the area of contact with the floor is not a solution to the problem, for these tend to excessively indent the surface covering, and thus the chair becomes harder to slide than with larger glides, and of course excessive indentation of the covering is objectionable.

An object of the present invention is to provide a furniture glide which will move freely over resilient floor surfacing materials.

Another object of the invention is to provide a furniture glide which will not tend to accumulate a coating of wax or other finishing materials customarily applied to resilient floor covering materials and thus will maintain its free gliding properties.

Other objects of the invention will become clear from consideration of the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which will be described in conjunction with the attached drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a furniture rest mounted on the leg of a piece of furniture;

Figure 2 is a View of the bottom of the furniture rest of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged view, partially in section, showin a portion of a glide on a resilient floor covering mounted in a supporting structure and illustrating the action of the glide at the floor-engaging surface.

According to the present invention a furniture rest is provided comprising a supporting member adapted to sustain the weight of a load positioned thereon. This may be of any desired configuration and of any suitable moldin composition such as disclosed in the Swarr patent referred to above. The supporting member will be provided with a floor-engaging surface which, preferably, will be essentially flat and a facing of polytetrafiuoroethylene will be rooted into the molded body and will project sufiiciently therefrom to constitute essentially the entire floor-engaging surface of the glide.

As shown in Figure 1, the glide may be formed of a pleasing curved shape and includes a body portion 2 having a floor-engaging surface portion 3. A ball joint connection 4 is provided, and a suitable fastening means,

'nited States Patent such as a pin, screw, or cotter key, not shown, is provided for securing the glide to the leg 5 of a piece of furniture. The particular structure of the glide-securing arrangement forms no part of the present invention, and as mentioned above, the Swarr patent illustrates a structure which may be used.

The body portion 2 is preferably formed of a hard matrix such as phenolic resin, molded to the desired shape. A special floor-engaging surface is provided in the body which will permit sliding even under adverse conditions. This surface is preferably formed of small pieces 6 of polytetrafiuoroethylene of flat but irregular shape. These pieces may be incorporated in the phenolic molding powder from which the whole body is made, but preferably they are disposed only in the portion of the body which will constitute the floor-engaging surface. This may be effected readily by merely double charging the mold cavity, first with a mixture of the particles and the phenolic resin molding powder and then with the remaining phenolic resin powder. If molding preforms are used, they may be formed with a lower portion including the particles or two preforms may be inserted in each molding cavity, one having the particles therein and the other being formed of the straight phenolic powder.

The polytetrafiuoroethylene particles are firmly rooted into the phenolic resin matrix, but since they are not readily wetted by the phenolic resin it does not flow around the surface of the particles which lie in engagement with that portion of the mold which forms the surface 3; and, as a result, these pieces project at least slightly from the surface of the body and constitute essentially the entire floor-engaging surface of the rest. This feature is shown to an exaggerated scale in Figure 3. it will be noted that the individual particles 6 which project from the surface of the body 2 form a plurality of closely spaced supports which engage the upper surface of a layer of linoleum 7 or other surface covering adhesively secured to wooden floor boards 8.

It is preferred to use flat, irregularly shaped chips of polytetrafiuoroethylene, but pieces of other configuration may be employed. In place of phenolic resin, the matrix of the body 2 may be made of other suitable materials, such as polystyrene resin, filled asphaltic compositions, or the like. The present invention is not concerned with the particular composition from which the body matrix is formed. With respect to the floor-engaging surface, however, there is no material known to applicant which possesses the physical characteristics of polytetrafiuoroethylene which makes it suited for use in the present invention. It is of a waxy nature and presents a surface which will slide over all known resilient floor coverings. it is not affected by the waxes customarily used in finishing and maintaining such floor coverings. It is not readily wetted by most molding materials, especially the conventional phenolic resin material, and thus will be exposed at the surface although compression molded under conditions where, normally, the molding material would tend to flow over the surface. It is extremely wear-resistant; and dirt, wax, oils, etc., which normally would tend to coat the conventional rest on the floorengaging surface do not cling to the polytetrafluoroethylene. It thus serves in combination with any matrix which has adequate strength for furniture rest services to provide a unique construction which overcomes the deficiencies in the prior furniture rests outlined above.

I claim:

1. A furniture rest comprising a supporting member formed of a hard resinous matrix, a floor-engaging surface on said member to which dirt-loaded Wax customarily present on floors will not cling readily, said floorengaging surface' comprising closely spacedparticles of polytetrafluoroethylene rooted into the resinous matrix in the area of the floor-engaging surface of the body and projecting slightly therefrom as spaced discrete particles whichformr essentially theentire floor-engaging surface of thelre st and provide an antifr iction surface'at the floor-engaging surface the rest which will maintain its ee-glid iiigpropertiesin the presence of dirt-laden whiten thefloorl- 21A furniture rest comprisinga supporting member formed of, a:phenolic resin;body, a floor-engaging surface on said mem her to which dirt-loade'd wax customarily present on floors will not cling readily, said floor-engagf ing sur face comp rising closely spaced particles of polytetrafl uoroethylene rotated into the phenolic resin body ssentially only in the-area of the floor-engaging surface oftlie hodyand projecting'slightly therefrom as spaced 4 discretepart'i'cles whicflfiarm essentiallythe entire floo'rengaging surface of the rest and provide an antifiiction surface at the floor-engaging surface of the rest which will maintain its free gliding properties in the presence of dirt-laden Wax on the floor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,057,171 Pyl Oct. 13, 1936 2,262,064 Swarr Nov. 11, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 657,080 Great Britain Sept. 12, 1951 OTHER REFERENCES Ball Bushings, catalogue of Thompson Industries, Inc., Manhasset, New York, Jan. 1, 1949. 

